Closing Thoughts

Even though we are looking at the same GPUs and performance levels that are consistent with products that have been available since 2011, there is a lot of information to digest and discuss. Hopefully you paid attention to our performance results on the previous page as we go into summation mode.

Performance

Yes, it is very true: the R9 and R7 cards we tested here today are essentially the same hardware we have had on the market since Tahiti was first released in December of 2011. Need more proof? Check out the table of specification comparisons below.

R9 280X

HD 7970 GHz

R9 270X

HD 7870 GHz

R7 260X

HD 7790

Process

28nm

28nm

28nm

28nm

28nm

28nm

Transistors

4.3 billion

4.3 billion

2.8 billion

2.8 billion

2.08 billion

2.08 billion

Shaders

2048

2048

1280

1280

896

896

Clock Speed

1000 MHz

1050 MHz

1050 MHz

1000 MHz

1100 MHz

1000 MHz

Memory Width

384-bit

384-bit

256-bit

256-bit

128-bit

128-bit

Memory Clock

1500 MHz

1500 MHz

1400 MHz

1200 MHz

1625 MHz

1500 MHz

Compute Perf

4.1 TFLOPS

4.3 TFLOPS

2.69 TFLOPS

2.56 TFLOPS

1.97 TFLOPS

1.79 TFLOPS

Texture Units

128

128

80

80

56

56

ROPs

32

32

32

32

16

16

Frame Buffer

3GB

3GB

2GB

2GB

2GB

1GB

Interestingly, the only card that takes a step back in performance is the R9 280X, running just about 50 MHz slower than the HD 7970 GHz Edition it is replacing. Many (if not most) retail cards will run at overclocked settings so the differences will be minimal but obviously AMD made this decision to improve yields and reach the best margins they could with the price drop they were targeting. The R9 270X and the R7 260X are actually increases in specifications and performance with higher clock speeds and higher theoretical compute levels.

So while the performance of all three new cards was very predictable, the performance gaps created by the repositioning of the product stack from AMD create some very glaring problems for NVIDIA. At the $299 price level NVIDIA has no direct competitor and instead the R9 280X finds itself sandwiched by the GTX 760 at $249 and the GTX 770 at $399. In many cases, the R9 280X is performing as well as or better than the GTX 770 that also has 50% less memory as well; not a good spot to be in if you're NVIDIA.

The R9 270X is in similarly good shape - at $199 the GTX 660 2GB competition (also at $199) falls behind in our game testing consistently and dramatically. The GTX 760 is a strong contender to it but at a price increase of 25%.

NVIDIA did get some good news with the R7 260X as it wasn't able to really push ahead of the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB card. With price cuts that were announced on Monday by NVIDIA, the 2GB model of the card is currently selling for $149 outright and as low as $129 with rebates. You can find 1GB models for $129 or $109 with rebates. Clearly the crowded market under $150 makes stand-out performance without cutting into your higher margin GPUs difficult.

Performance per Dollar

As I like to do with new card releases, I made a few graphs to demonstrate the relative performance per dollar of the R9 280X and R9 270X as well as the competing NVIDIA products. The prices these graphs are based on are seen below in the Pricing and Availability section.

These graphs show you the FPS per dollar investment for a single graphics cards, though with a 100x multiplier to make it all easier to read. The winner in all three results is the Radeon R9 270X for all competitors. The R9 280X is significantly more efficient than the GTX 770 and comes out ahead of the GTX 760 in all three cases as well.

Features and Updates

While we were definitely hoping that with this new product stack update would be a driver release to fix frame pacing in Eyefinity and 4K resolutions, that isn't in the cards quite yet. The company has committed to get the fix in sometime this fall, but that still doesn't help HD 7000 users or buyers of these new R9 cards.

The best update that finds its way across the entire lineup is the easier Eyefinity integration that can now be configured without the need for a DisplayPort enabled monitor or active DisplayPort adapter. That might not seem like a big deal for most users it brings the technology to parity with NVIDIA and its Surround integration options. I am also a fan of the move to a more standardized output configuration with a pair of dual-link DVI connections and full-size HDMI and DisplayPort.

AMD TrueAudio seems exciting but without games that really take advantage of it or even demos that we can run locally, I am going to withhold judgment on the capabilities of programmable audio. Perhaps we'll have more information by the time the R9 290X makes its way out the door...

Pricing and Availability

We have been talking about the pricing of these news cards throughout the story as it really is the key to AMD's success. But let's recap:

UPDATE: AMD tells me that the R9 280X, R9 270X and R7 260X will be in stores on October 11th.

You may notice some lower than expected prices on the HD 7000 series analogs to the cards above, but those are going to be very short lived as the 7970, 7870 and 7790 find their way out the door. I don't expect there to be any kind of stock issues for these cards as the 28nm process and GPU demand are well known for AMD at this point in the Tahiti lifespan.

But what about those incredibly successful Never Settle bundles? Well apparently they are taking a break as none of the new cards will be included in any game bundle offers at all. Considering the huge push that AMD has made with Never Settle packages and the emphasis the company put on the marketing efforts during the Hawaii tech day I find the lack free games slightly confusing...

Clearly NVIDIA needs to make some adjustments to remain competitive in the battle of performance per dollar with the GTX 660, GTX 760 and GTX 770. When they will do so, and how aggressive they get, is still up in the air.

Closing Thoughts

There is very little new about the technology behind the R9 and R7 series of graphics cards. But the price drops alone would be a huge story even if AMD wasn't also rebranding everything to a new naming scheme at the same time. The R9 280X is clearly and without question the best graphics card for $299 and the same is clear for the R9 270X at $199. NVIDIA has no option today that is currently priced to compete with the performance these two cards can now flaunt. AMD is definitely going to get some attention with this release.

The R7 260X is just fine and is competitive against the likes of the GTX 650 Ti Boost but loses the performance battle more than it wins it, leaving me much less impressed with the positioning AMD has put it in.

At this point I would normally give a product with this much praise our highest awards but there is one issue that prevents me from doing so. The ugly words that AMD hates: frame pacing. AMD still has some work to do to match the multi-GPU scaling capabilities of NVIDIA's GeForce line especially in the fields of Eyefinity and 4K gaming. Single monitor issues have been mostly addressed and once AMD's driver team can release an update for single large surface resolutions then the products being showcased today are going to burst into the spotlight again.

As it stands today though, if you know you are a single GPU gamer, or have no plans to go beyond a single panel display configuration, the Radeon R9 280X and R9 270X are the best GPU options I can point you to.

Now if only we could start talking about this R9 290X that keeps getting teased...

Has anyone not figured out that Bioshock uses more then 2 gigs of ram yet at ultra? Those performance hitches are the ram swapping constantly. I have gtx 670 sli 2gb and a single gtx 770 4gb in two different systems. The gtx 770 plays completely hitch free on ultra using over 2.4 gigs at times smooth as butter. I have to drop texture quality and ambient occlusion to even get close to the same smooth results with my gtx 670 sli even though framerate is almost doubled. Why nvidia is even bothering with 2gb on high end cards is beyond me.

Yes, memory is becoming a bigger issue all the time. In my case Rome Total War II. The rendering of myriads of objects has gotten to the point where the game points out the graphic memory inadequacy of my 1.5GB board and degrades the battle rendering accordingly. A title like this would invalidate some of these tests.

What was the question? The 7970s are being EOLed so they will not be available at retail after stock is depleted afaik. It is detailed on the first page that the 280X is essentially the same card as the 7970...

A true AMD fan is expecting more from his favorite company. If not better hardware at least a price war. Nothing happened. Now Nvidia is lowering the prices of Ti boost and 660. Instead of AMD being on the offensive you have Nvidia doing that. I guess AMD can not give fast HD7000 cards at lower prices than.... yesterday AND Mantle together to the PC user. It will be a disaster for Sony AND Microsoft in the end a disaster for AMD.

R9 280X is the same as 7970, 270X is the same as 7870, 260X is the same+audio as the 7790 and the smaller cards are worst than 7770/7750/7730.
Also this is 2013, not 2012.
If you like buying last year's cards with new names at the same prices they where yesterday, well, it's your money, no problem for me.

I am looking at those slides from AMD comparing R9 and R7 to HD5000 and HD6000 for 10 minutes and I try to understand what the hell is going on here? Was HD7000 never existed or is AMD feeling that it's customers have the memory of a goldfish and no brain at all?

Did they really lower the price when you don't get 3-4 AAA games now? NV cards still come with Batman Arkham Origins (AAA surely and not even out yet) and a few with Rise of the Triad also (evga's come with both).

Not to mention only a fool buys stock when you can get 3 cards on newegg that are 100mhz faster for $249, and for $259 you can get the Zotac that is 140mhz faster and has memory OC'd 200mhz too over what you're testing here. So basically add another 12% to your scores and remember 1 or 2 free games vs 0. When I can get an OC card that is the same price as a company's set price I call that the new ref card :) You wouldn't buy a ref clocked card for the same price would you? $249 is the cheapest.

Evga, MSI, Gigabyte ($249) and Zotac at $259 at newegg, all are over 100mhz faster. Who buys these ref clocked cards? Newegg displays the speeds for everyone to see on one page. I'm surprise anyone can sell a ref clocked card. Zotac's is 1111/1176 as opposed to your tested 980/1033 probably.

At the same time, I suspect most card makers will clock 280x the same as ghz editions anyway. Having said that, people should just buy OC'd 7970's and take the games if they want AMD. But I don't think the situation is quite as bad as said here considering the games and price for an OC 760 card out of the box (many brands). NV will just adjust prices, uplock a model or two and drop everything else down in a few weeks (before black friday no doubt). They have profits they can take a dip on, AMD cutting just means break even or losses yet again. AMD on the other hand owes $200mil note to GF in Dec which will likely wipe out any profits from these cards and xmas console sales. I hope for their sake, Hawaii is phenomenal.

I'm wondering why they would release they're slower-rehashed cards first and sit on the 290X/290. With the big games coming soon you would think they would be pushing them as much as possible now as the green team has nothing to counter. I hope I'm wrong but maybe AMDs upcoming flagship won't compete directly with Nvidia's existing top end chips, hmm, but that has to be wrong right. It's got to be more powerful then the GTX 780, we hope for the sake of the consumer anyway. I guess AMD could be waiting to see what Nvidia is going to do about these new parts. Let's play the waiting game again! Anyone know when we'll have (exciting) news or release dates on new AMD top end card(s)?

Since the article mentions that the video outputs of the 280x have changed to similar to the 700 nvidia series,can a 280x do 120hz eyefinity with the use of only one dual link display port to dvi adapter -or is it the same like the 7970 which required 2 adapters-?

It's amazing 2 years later they still can't get multi gpu configurations right but they can re release old hardware as new. None of the offerings can compete with sli 670s or higher. Gtx 700 series may not be quite the new but they directly replaced their elders with price while boosting performance. What good is releasing new cards with crossfire capabilities when it still doesn't work.

What good is eyefinity when no amd card has enough power to play newer games at that resolution and multi gpu just plain don't work correctly at any resolution. I always bought amd cards since it was ati when 3dfx folded. I always believed they were the better value but their has been trash support the past years and to believe they just recently acknowledged crossfire to be a problem is beyond me. So glad I spent saved a few extra and went with the company who provides real support and real fixes for their problems. Scary to think amd is leading us into a new console generation with sub-par gpus. Eeek

Great Review and Video Showcase Ryan. That Asus 280x looks amazing. The price /performance of the 7970, I mean the 280X makes it even better as Im looking to upgrade from my 1gb 7850 to play Battlefield 3 at Ultra at 1080p, which is essentially the only game I play. Bf4 beta isnt to kind to it(7850) either, hopefully I will upgrade son.

Anyhow, keep up the great work, waiting anxiously for the Juggernaut 290X and 290 review!

I don't understand what all the hate with these cards is about. If you are someone that is coming from say a card 3 gens ago then this is a good deal. The price is 300 for a card that can max out any game right now at 1080p and even at 1440p depending on the game.if your not going to buy it then just Waite for the 290x which is expecting to be 600. Not everyone has that type of money

I always find it strange how close these cards are. I find it hard to believe that this by chance. Clearly AMD and Nvidia are working together, at least at some levels, to ensure maximum profit. There is no competition here.

I understand you put work into this, But why did you have to use graphs like that to show FPS, Many people are just going to search for other reviews that show simple numbers instead of having to strain their eyes following a stupid line just to learn a cards performance. C'mon man!